Louis van Gaal admits that the worst December in the club's history has wrecked what could have been a perfect 2015 for United.

The Reds briefly went top of the Premier League in November when they won at Watford and were on the brink of booking their Champions League last 16 berth with a game to spare against PSV Eindhoven.

A draw at top of the table Leicester City at the end of November kept the Reds among the leaders and just a point off the number one spot.

But December brought the European exit three league defeats and two draws and force them out of the top four and nine points away from leaders Arsenal.

The catastrophic six matches amounted to that damning worst December the 137 years the club has been in existence.

Assessing 2015 the United boss said, “I think we have fulfilled the wish and our aim in the first season. And that ends halfway in 2015 and after that we have managed to give balance to the team and that resulted in November we were first.

“Then we are out of the Champions League and that gives us a big blow. When you don't assess December it was a very good year, 2015.

“But you can not do that because a year has 12 months. So I speak more about that period because we are living in that period, not January 2015.”

The year did end on a more upbeat note when United fended off four league defeats in a row and were improved in the 0-0 stalemate with Chelsea.

“I think we have played many matches like that. The way we played this season, we are more or less the dominant team. We are mostly always pressing. I have to say we have shots at the goal maybe in the first 45 minutes, but we are playing, certainly at home, like that in many matches. Only we don't score at this time and that is our problem.

“Our problem is not to dominate, but to score. Goals are the most important thing. But I was surprised because of the big pressure that the players could give so much at that moment. That was the big surprise. The way we played under that pressure in the style we want to play that was fantastic.”